How many greens is enough? I’m not sure there’s ever enough. I’ve been constantly sowing and planting out a variety of seedlings and we’ve been able to harvest non-stop for months now. In fact, the beds are pretty chockers with a high proportion of greens. But that’s no reason to rest on my laurels.

Itty Bitty Asian Greens

In the past week I’ve planted out a bunch of Asian greens (which are all Brassicas) and yesterday I plugged a few holes in the lettuce and basil bed to make up for some losses -hot sun and various critters can take their toll on a little seeding. Note the spares in the green planter on the right. I’ve learned it’s handy to have a bit more than you need to be able to fill in those inevitable holes. Any true leftovers I pass on to friends and neighbours.

Lettuce and Basil seedlings making good progress

I also sowed a bunch of cabbage seeds. Cabbage grows all year here and Frank has promised one more bed which will be the cabbage bed. If he doesn’t deliver I think I’ll have a few holes from other harvests where I could place the cabbage anyway.

The advantage of cabbage is it can withstand the hot summer sun here. That and my Warrigal Greens might be my summer staples. The silverbeet and spinach are already wilting by the end of a sunny day and it’s only November. Come January I think they’ll be gone and my lettuce may also expire in the heat.

All of which means it may be impossible to overdo the greens in my garden – but I’m trying 🙂

How hot will it get and for how long will it persist? Do you irrigate or is the problem primarily one of a scorching heat? Also, do you worry about snakes and other creatures found down under? The only great thing about living in the upper Midwest and food gardening is — NO poisonous or biting creatures (except the black fly and wasps).

It tops 100 for a few days every year but spends a lot of time in the mid-90s. I’m not sure the temp is the only problem, the sun just feels hot. I grew up in Seattle and there is absolutely a difference between the strength of the sun in Sydney compared to there. Large leafy plants just don’t like that much direct sun – even tomatoes get sunburn spots. In the past we’ve tried shade cloth and may resort to it again.

We don’t have irrigation. We have a rainwater tank with a gravity fed hose. When the pressure gets too low we use cans. We may install a pump this year but our rainwater tanks will empty pretty quickly if we have a long dry spell (they last about a month). We’ve had water restrictions in the past (when the garden was built but they are less restrictive now) that prevented watering with a hose. Only drip irrigation and only on certain days at certain times… It is something we may look at to save us an hour a day of lugging watering cans around the garden.

And I don’t worry about poisonous critters. I don’t think snakes visit my back garden. The only danger here is funnel web spiders. They are quite venomous and live in suburban Sydney backyards. But there’s a good anti-venom and no one has died from a bite in ages. Honestly, I’m more afraid of being hit by a car going to buy flour than I am of being bitten by anything in my garden.

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I live on the banks of the Derwent River in Hobart Tasmania. I've have a couple acres of bush, paddock, gardens and plenty of weeds to keep me busy. I'm learning as I go about growing what I can, caring for the living things around me and enjoying it all while I'm at it.